‘Smart card’ start pleases Rams

The St. Louis Rams sold $10,000 worth of Fast Break concession "smart cards"
during the introduction of the product at the team's Nov. 9 game against Baltimore
at Edward Jones Dome, a number the team said it was satisfied with.

The Rams signed a contract with Facility Acceptance Network, an affiliate of
sports consultant Marc Ganis' Sportscorp Ltd., to begin using the cards. Fans who
buy the cards can slide them through card readers to pay for items without having
to fumble through their pockets for cash.

Team officials view the concept as a fan amenity and aren't concerned with increasing
their food, beverage and retail revenue. There was no cost to the Rams. FAN invested
$300,000 on the rollout and assumes all financial risk.

Kiosks and vendors sold the cards.

"We never thought it would be a revenue driver," said Rams Executive Vice President
Bob Wallace. "That's not why we did it. We're doing it for the convenience of the
fans."

The card also will provide buying patterns that the Rams and concessionaire
Sportservice can use to manage inventory.

Card holders have use of an exclusive "express lane" at concession stands. The
cards were sold by 40 vendors and at two kiosks.

The cards cost $25 and $50, corresponding with the value stored in the self-contained
computer chip.

Sportservice GM Tom Schlaker said, "The jury is still out on whether it will
drive sales."

The concept is not new to the NFL. The Jacksonville Jaguars used smart cards
for four seasons, 1995-1998, at Alltel Stadium, and the cards accounted for 13 percent
of overall concession sales, said Bruce Swindell, the team's director of information
technology.

"In Europe, smart cards have been adopted with open arms, but it's still slow
to catch on in the U.S.," he said.

The team discontinued them because technology was foreign to the card holders
and they were unable to use them outside the facility.

"We want to drive fans to our sponsors," Swindell said.

In St. Louis, Sportservice executives privately expressed concern that the introduction
of smart cards midway through the season would disrupt their operation. The firm
worked with previous smart card campaigns in 1997 that eventually folded at Savvis
Center in St. Louis and U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago.

"We couldn't make a business case for it," said Ken Lapponese, VP of sales with
Venue 1, which acquired his old firm, Tangent Associates, the point-of-sales supplier
that worked with the St. Louis Blues and Chicago White Sox on those programs. Venue
1 accounts include Edward Jones Dome.

"Personally, I hope he succeeds," Lapponese said. "We've worked with Marc to
accept his readers at our registers."

Ganis signed a contract for exclusive North American rights with Dutch vendor
Smart Point. "One of the keys is that you don't have to provide a hard connection
between the register and a phone line processing the connection," Ganis said. "You
don't know how much that changes the economic model. The readers can be packed up
and moved down the street to Busch Stadium."

Sportservice also has the account for the St. Louis Cardinals, who play at Busch.

Schlaker said it might be time for concessionaires to finally accept the latest
technology. "We've seen this time and time again," he said. "But from my perspective,
this is a new beginning."